Boehner leaves no room for dissent

Published: Monday, December 10, 2012 at 01:18 PM.

A
North
Carol
ina
congressman has apparently flunked a test of loyalty — to his party, not to the people who re-elected him by a large margin last month and certainly not to his principles.

Good for him.

Walter B. Jones. Jr., heading into his 10th term as the congressman from
North
Carol
ina
’s 3rd District, lost his seat on the House Finance Services Committee last week when House Speaker John A. Boehner engineered a purge of fellow Republicans known to stray from the party line.

The three other casualties — David Schweikert of Arizona, also booted off Finance Services; Justin Amash of Michigan, off Budget; and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, off both Budget and Agriculture — are among the House’s most conservative, and rebellious, members. Jones, on the other hand, has a reputation as a moderate — he was once a Democrat after all. Best we can figure, voting against his party’s wishes 30 percent of the time was apparently enough to mark him with Boehner.

Indeed, ideology had less to do with it than obedience. The House Speaker on Wednesday denied the committee changes made Monday were a “conservative purge,” but in a closed-door meeting of Republican lawmakers he made it clear, according to a report in Roll Call, that going along was the best way to get along. One person inside the meeting characterized Boehner’s tone as “threatening.” With votes related to the fiscal cliff and federal debt limit on the horizon, the Republican leadership clearly doesn’t want to deal with dissention in its ranks.

Unfortunately for Boehner, Jones tends to vote according to his principles and does what he feels is right for his country and his constituents, regardless of which way the wind blows on Capitol Hill. We don’t always agree with Jones but in a chamber dominated by freeze-dried opportunists, a congressman with integrity stands out.

“I’m not going to sacrifice my integrity for anyone or any party,” the congressman was quoted in a story in Tuesday’s Washington Times. “It’s the price you pay. I didn’t come up here to be a puppet for anyone. And I think the public back in my district, which is the most important, has seen I’m willing to do what I think is right.”

A North Carolina congressman has apparently flunked a test of loyalty — to his party, not to the people who re-elected him by a large margin last month and certainly not to his principles.

Good for him.

Walter B. Jones. Jr., heading into his 10th term as the congressman from North Carolina’s 3rd District, lost his seat on the House Finance Services Committee last week when House Speaker John A. Boehner engineered a purge of fellow Republicans known to stray from the party line.

The three other casualties — David Schweikert of Arizona, also booted off Finance Services; Justin Amash of Michigan, off Budget; and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, off both Budget and Agriculture — are among the House’s most conservative, and rebellious, members. Jones, on the other hand, has a reputation as a moderate — he was once a Democrat after all. Best we can figure, voting against his party’s wishes 30 percent of the time was apparently enough to mark him with Boehner.

Indeed, ideology had less to do with it than obedience. The House Speaker on Wednesday denied the committee changes made Monday were a “conservative purge,” but in a closed-door meeting of Republican lawmakers he made it clear, according to a report in Roll Call, that going along was the best way to get along. One person inside the meeting characterized Boehner’s tone as “threatening.” With votes related to the fiscal cliff and federal debt limit on the horizon, the Republican leadership clearly doesn’t want to deal with dissention in its ranks.

Unfortunately for Boehner, Jones tends to vote according to his principles and does what he feels is right for his country and his constituents, regardless of which way the wind blows on Capitol Hill. We don’t always agree with Jones but in a chamber dominated by freeze-dried opportunists, a congressman with integrity stands out.

“I’m not going to sacrifice my integrity for anyone or any party,” the congressman was quoted in a story in Tuesday’s Washington Times. “It’s the price you pay. I didn’t come up here to be a puppet for anyone. And I think the public back in my district, which is the most important, has seen I’m willing to do what I think is right.”

George Washington, who shaped the office of president for all time, had less success keeping factionalism out of the political process. Before his eyes, disagreements over the direction and form of the new republic and the extent of its government’s power gave rise to the Federalists of Alexander Hamilton and, in opposition, the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson. Washington rued the resulting division as detrimental to the nation as a whole.

In his Farewell Address, Washington issued this warning about party politics: “The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”

Unless we miss our guess, Walter Jones sees political parties as neither irrelevant nor dangerous. He does see them as something less than the straitjacket in which Boehner wants to envelop his troops. He is guided by something more than partisanship as usual via the House Speaker.